Turkey Day, 50 years back
(John Olson/Stars and Stripes)
Official caption: “South Vietnam, November 1967: Staff Sgt. Raymond Scherz of Addison, Ill., has a passenger, but the gobbler’s ride shapes up as a one-way trip to C Company, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry, 9th Infantry Division’s Thanksgiving dinner at the nearby Bear Cat base camp. The turkey was one of 57,000 sent in to provide as many as possible of the half-million U.S. servicemembers in Vietnam with a traditional holiday feast.
Also rolling through the supply chain for the 1967 meal were 225 tons of boneless turkey meat, 28 tons of cranberry sauce, 15 tons of mixed nuts, eight tons of candy, 11 tons of olives, and 33 tons of fruitcake.”
However, you couldn’t be too careful with Charlie.
Specialist Fred Gutierrez “interrogates” a turkey for its supposed links to the North Vietnamese Army as it sits in the rucksack of Staff Sgt. Raymond Scherz near Bearcat Base, Dong Nai Vietnam, Thanksgiving 1967.
As for the AN/PRR-9 on the soldier’s helmet, as noted by VietnamGear.com:
The battery-powered PRR-9 helmet-mounted receiver was used in conjunction with the PRT-4 handheld transmitter as a ‘walkie-talkie’ type radio. After successful testing, PRT/4 – PRR/9 sets were first sent to Vietnam in March 1967. However, the sets performed poorly in the field compared to the PRC-25 and were consequently relegated to base security use.
